Locks and Traps

In the tradition of Grimtooth, I have some lock and trap ideas that I can't resist putting out there. Hope you DM's out there have some fun with these!

"Bored" Lock
In order to pick a lock, a thief needs to be able to reach the lock with his or her lockpicks, correct? This lock should be set in the wall next to the door. For it to work, the wall must be 3 or more feet thick. The lock is set in a hole bored into the wall approximately a foot or two deep. The result is that a long-stemmed key will open the lock (say, a mace pommel that screws off to reveal a key?), but lockpicks will not - unless the thief carries very long, hard to conceal lockpicks!

Glyph of Warding Lock
This lock is a specially prepared magical lock. The keyhole plate has a small glyph of warding inscribed around the keyhole. The glyph is enspelled against any metal objects being put through the keyhole to do an electrical discharge at the offending item (for damage, see Glyph of Warding spell in the Player's Handbook). Said charge travels through the lockpicks of whoever is trying to pick the lock, and (hopefully) deters them from trying again. The lock would have to be "reset" per the Glyph of Warding spell.

Tapestry Lock and Key
The first component of this duo is a sapphire pear-cut necklace, about the size of a typical key without the stem. When both sides of the necklace are pressed, an illusion of a keystem appears to sprout out the point of the necklace. The key is attuned to a tapestry - typically a large tapestry with a door bearing a keyhole somewhere in the picture. When the illusionary key is inserted into the keyhole on the tapestry, the tapestry shifts into an extradimensional portal.

Lockpick eating lock
The way this trapped lock works is that there are a pair of small textured rollers that snap together from either side to trap a lockpick. The rollers turn and "suck" the key into the lock (presumably out the other side), much like the rollers in a pitching machine throw a ball. If the thief gets through the lock without understanding its nature, it will be amusing to see a reaction when a pile of lockpicks is described on the floor beyond the door!

Doorknob key
A fairly simple trick, but one that players will not necessarily think of. Have a door with a rotating doorknob (like a typical modern door) leads into a room. The only other door in the room can only be opened with a magical key. The doorknobs and the stem connecting them are the key to the magical lock. The key is produced by pressing in the doorknob on both sides of the door, twisting the knobs in opposite directions, and pulling, which gives you a knob, and a knob with the stem, which is the key to the other door. There may be clues you can give the characters, such as having a round depression in the other door that the keyhole is in. You could also clue the PC's in by using a verse inscribed in the door - perhaps "The way in is the way out" or "Your method of entry is the key to your departure". As an added unpleasant twist, removal of the doorknob may cause the entry door to shut and permenantly lock, and force the characters to face what lies beyond the exit door.

Word of Recall Lock
This is a specially made padlock with a variant of the clerical spell Word of Recall cast upon an item in the lock. There is a small clay tile in the lock that the modified Word of Recall is cast upon. When the lock is opened, the tile is broken. Whoever is in contact with the lock when the tile is broken is teleported with the lock to a pre-set location (a jail cell, the bottom of a dry well, on a pillar in a volcano, etc.).

Fake Door/Panel Door
Simply a misdirection effort here - have the opening of a lock in a door actually unlock a sliding panel next to the door (or across the room). The door may simply not open, or if you are in a nasty mood, opening the door leads to a small closet where a pre-arranged fireball detonates.

Animated Stone Lock
This lock necessitates a number of powerful spells (Contingency, Animate Stone, etc.). The net result is that if the proper key is not used, a stone hand shoots out of the door (presumably stone also)and grabs the hand of the offending thief, pulls it into the door, then de-animates, leaving the thief with his hand embedded in the stonework. The thief would get a Dexterity check at 1/2 to avoid the trap. The trap may or may not reset itself at DM option.

Pivoting Water-filling Hallway
All right, you come up with a better name for it! This trap centers in a hallway, perhaps 30-50 feet long. There are doors every 10 feet, with small 1 foot by 1 foot barred windows in them. The doors are locked but can be picked. However, before the next door in the hallway can be opened, the one before it must be closed and locked. The last door in line looks like the others, except there is darkness past the window opening. Dispelling the darkness shows blank stone beyond the window (there's nothing there - yet). When you get to the end of the hallway and try to open the last door, a mechanism is triggered that pivots the entire hallway from horizontal to vertical, so the party is now standing at the bottom of a shaft. Once the hallway stops at vertical (takes 2 rounds), a barrier (magical or non, your choice) moves aside and pressurized water begins to fill the hallway. The water level rises 10 feet every 2 rounds (10'/round if you have an exceptionally tough party). The windows in the doors allow the water level to pass the doors, but party members still have to pick the locks and relock the doors to get out the top. What is at the top is up to the DM. Could be more of the place the PC's are exploring, could be a blank wall (sucks to be them!).

Breakaway Ladder
This 20' ladder looks like a standard wooden ladder with one rung every two feet. The weight limit of the eighth rung up is drastically less than the rest of the ladder. The rungs of the ladder are actually hollow, with a thin diamond-dusted wire running through the center of the rung. The wire is much stronger than the rung and will not break. When the full weight of the person on the ladder crashes to the rungs below, they also will break, revealing diamond dusted wires. The wires will slice through anything that is not metal or magically enchanted (leather boots, gloves, etc.). End result: anyone on the ladder when it breaks takes 1d4 damage for every rung up the ladder they are. A successful Dexterity check cuts the damage in half.

The heart of the matter
The setup of this trap is that there is a grossly obscene looking growth at the end of a corridor, looking like a large veiny heart. The heart is the seal for a highly pressurized fluid filled chamber that keeps the ceiling suspended over the hallway. The first instinct of a player is likely to be to shoot it. If the heart is pierced, the seal is ruptured and all the liquid is let out, causing the ceiling to come down and crush the party in the hallway.

"Minesweeper" Trap
This trap is highly magical in nature - many wishes are used to keep this trap in place!
Setup
The trap consists of a square room divided into a grid. The grid squares should be 10' on a side. The ceiling of the room should be about 5' high. The grid squares each look like transparent cubes of light, from the floor to the ceiling. The grid should be at least 6 x 6 squares. You will probably want to chart out the grid on graph paper. Mark squares that would be a clear path from one side of the room to the other, like the example below:

X		X	X	X	X
X			X	X	X
	X
	X	X	X	X
	X	X	X		X

Assume the door into the room is at the bottom of the grid in the left hand corner. Assume the door out of the room is the second square in from the left at the top of the grid. For each of the clear squares, count the squares around it with "x"'s, and put that number in the square, like the example below:

X	3	X	X	X	X
X	4	4	X	X	X
3	X	5	5	5	3
2	X	X	X	X	1
2	4	6	5	4	2
1	X	X	X	2	X

Now you are ready to see how this trap works...
How it works
The squares that are "clear" (that have numbers in them) will not do anything to the characters but sound a tone as many times as the number in the square. If a character enters a square with an "x" in it, the player takes damage (no saving throw): 1d8 per time that a cube with an "x" has been entered. Thus, the first time it happens, the character takes 1d8. The second time, whichever character that tries to enter the "x" square takes 2d8, and so on. In order for a square to be considered as entered, the space that cube occupies must be entered (so if you stick a hand out over the line between one cube and the next, you have entered that cube). Since the sides of the cube have no real seperation, there is no way to travel diagnally without entering one of the cubes adjacent first. The square will not discharge until a sentient being crosses into it. Coins, golems, and other unthinking objects will not set it off. Eventually, the trap can be cleared through logic (as if you were playing a small game of minesweeper), or through a lot of trial and error!